Primal Servants of Neutrality

DCC's Monsters chapter suggests that 1% of Chaotic or Lawful creatures should be Primal Servants, selected to be stronger, smarter, more magical, and more important to the cosmic struggle than their peers. This article provides a variety of Neutral types of Primal Servant. These are merely examples that fit my views on Neutrality and - as with the Law and Chaos Primes given in the book - creativity is encouraged.

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It is widely believed that agents of Law and Chaos hide in plain sight, enacting the wills of those too great to directly involve themselves. This is, of course, entirely true. What is lesser known is that the forces between spawn agents of their own. The disparate nature of the Neutral Alignment necessitates that its Servants are just as varied. Balance, Nature, and servants of indifferent or incomprehensible motivations should be considered similar but different types of entities.

As with Lawful and Chaotic Primes, Neutral Primes have 50% more hit dice and are typically stronger and more intelligent than their normal counterparts. Their magical features depend on which kind of Neutrality they manifest from.

Primal Servants of Balance

There is a 1% chance that any Neutral soldier, lawman, or more rarely a commoner or construct, is a paladin of Balance. These Primes are designated by the Gods for a certain role. They are typically rebels and renegades, fighting against the status quo for what they believe is right. This does not mean they oppose Lawful society - they might oppose the "might makes right" of a Chaotic tyranny. Constructs who are Prime can be in latent opposition to the cause they were created to serve. Paladins of Balance have Luck on their side, which may manifest spontaneously or be willfully manifested through sheer drive. High level paladins of Balance can have an intelligent magic weapon and can use it to step between the mundane world and a Neutral plane from which the weapon originates.

Primal Servants of Nature

There is a 1% chance that any Neutral animal, plant- or fungus-based monster, beastman or wildling is a warden of Nature. These Primes typically have a connection with the landscape around their home, and may affect the weather with their emotional state, sense water in the desert, command animals and manipulate plants, or sense distress among the trees in a forest. Often, they manifest these abilities unconsciously and may even be unaware of their power. They actively endeavour to hold back the encroachment of civilization onto the wildlands, and hunt down Chaotic invaders looking to exploit natural resources. They can step between the mundane world and whichever of the infinite para-elemental planes their ancestry is tied to.

Primal Servants of the Old Ones

There is a 1% chance that any Neutral aberration, outsider, extraplanar entity, or worshiper of an Old One is a priest of the Old Ones. Priests of the Old Ones receive deranged visions from far beyond the astral seas, pushing them to act out the will of their God. They appear insane to anyone who is not a follower of the Old Ones. They typically have psychic powers that can alter the mind of others, such as enthralling them, driving them insane, locking them in a nightmarish dream, or forcing them to joyfully rush to their own annihilation - though they do not necessarily choose to use these on everyone. They can step between the mundane world and the outer realm of an Old One, and can even temporarily drag another being with them (Will save 10+HD to resist). Even brief exposure to these realms is sure to have permanent psychological effects.

Unaligned Primal Servants

There is a 1% chance that any Neutral monstrosity, goblinoid, ghost, ooze, elemental, or other Neutral being is a Primal Servant of other allegiance (or no allegiance). The allegiance may be known (for instance, a Prime Air Elemental would likely be a Servant of Ithha, Prince of Elemental Wind, and the PCs may know of the Prince) or unknown and need not be made clear. They are leaders of their race or exemplars of their type - for instance a goblinoid Prime will have underlings, a Prime hybrid monstrosity may have extra body parts, a Prime ooze may have extra or more powerful ooze special properties. They can usually extradimensionally step to their lair and back again, as long as they haven't strayed beyond adjacent planes.